FORT BRAGG, N.C. - It was a very chilly Saturday morning when Eric Torres, Shane Lorenzen and Dave Clark of the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Branch, volunteered to set up "shop" in the North Post Commissary and Exchange parking lot. Their cause or reason for being there -- commitment to recycling.
The Bragg About Recycling program is about three years old said Torres, DPW, Compliance Pollution Prevention Program manager. The drives are held once per quarter and aim to collect small, personal electronics, plastics, aluminum cans, paper products, glass, waste cooking oil, printer cartridges and more.
"On a good day we've collected about 9,000 pounds of recyclable," said Torres.
Torres and his colleagues agree that recycling is an ongoing process of education - educating the community of the importance of recycling. But more and more businesses are getting into the recycling mode. There are even electronic retail stores that recycle computers, circuit boards, etc. and some grocery stores offer recycling bins for plastic bags.
"Fort Bragg is trying to do its part and we call these events recycling drives. This is one of our ways to get the word out and encourage the community to recycle," said Torres.
The DPW environmental team made a haul Saturday and collected computers, keyboards, laptops, televisions, vacuum cleaners, and microwaves, in total about 5,523 pounds of electronics.
Although it is important to recycle all recyclable items, the team said paper is one of the easiest because it's something we deal with daily at home and at work.
According to a 2010 report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, paper and paper products account for about 29 percent of landfill waste, and landfills are the third largest, human-related source of methane in the U.S. Methane is a key component of natural gas and could potentially be harnessed as a form of renewable energy. But not all landfills have the resources or are set up to collect methane and the gas is usually released into the environment. Some environmentalist attribute this fact in part to the global climate change.
According to the website http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/paper/basics, recycling just one ton of paper can:
Save enough energy to power the average American home for six months
Save 7,000 gallons of water
Save 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one metric ton of carbon equivalent
Additionally, paper recycling has the best "bang for the buck" potential of almost any recycling initiative. It contributes to the economic, social and environmental sustainability in the U.S. and the world.
But equally important is recycling electronic items said Torres. Experts estimate that about 70 percent of heavy electronic metals in landfills come directly from electronic equipment and computers. These metals and chemicals used in electronics cause serious health problems
"Because of the serious health and environmental issues posed by these electronics, as of July of last year, electronics are banned from North Carolina landfills," he said.
So, the question becomes, where do people dispose of their old TV's, computers and electronic paraphernalia? You take it to the Bragg about Recycling collection drives held quarterly of course.
"Once we collect the stuff, items get broken down like TVs and computers and the glass, precious metals (like gold, silver and platinum) and some bad stuff (like heavy metals) are kept out of the landfill and are reused," said Lorenzen.
Like a lot of things in life, recycling is about choices. As residents of planet Earth, what kind of environment do we want to live in? Then make the right choice -- recycle.
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